• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.543-546
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• 2004

The inverse Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation with electrons in the intracluster medium which has a temperature gradient, was examined by the third-order perturbation theory of the Compton scattering. A new type of the spectrum distortion of the CMB was found and named as gradient T Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (gradT SZE). The spectrum has an universal shape. There is a zero distortion point, the cross over frequency, at 326GHz. When the hotter region locates closer to an observer, the intensity becomes brighter than the CMB in the frequency region lower than the cross over frequency and fainter than the CMB in the frequency region higher than the cross over frequency. When the cooler region locates closer to an observer, the distorted part of the spectrum has an opposite sign to the above case. The amplitude of the spectrum distortion does not de-pend on the electron density and depends on the heat conductivity and the total temperature variation along a line of sight. Therefore, the gradT SZE provides an unique opportunity to measure thermally nonequilibrium electron momentum distribution function in the ICM and combined with the X-ray measurements of the electron temperature distribution provides an opportunity of direct measurement of the heat conductivity in the ICM.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.191-195
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• 2005

We used Subaru observations of A1689 (z = 0.183) to derive an accurate, model-independent mass profile for the entire cluster, r$\le$2Mpc/h, by combining magnification bias and distortion measurements. The projected mass profile steepens quickly with increasing radius, falling away to zero at r${\~}$1.0Mpc/h, well short of the anticipated virial radius. Our profile accurately matches onto the inner profile, r $\le$200kpc/ h, derived from deep HST / ACS images. The combined ACS and Subaru information is well fitted by an NFW profile with virial mass, $(1.93 \pm 0.20) {\times}10^{15} M_{\bigodot}$, and surprisingly high concentration, $C_{vir} = 13.7^{+1.4}_{-1.1}$, significantly larger than theoretically expected ($C_{vir} {\le}4$), corresponding to a relatively steep overall profile. These results are based on a reliable sample of background galaxies selected to be redder than the cluster E/SO sequence. By including the faint blue galaxy population a much smaller distortion signal is found, demonstrating that blue cluster members significantly dilute the true signal for r $\le$ 400kpc/ h. This contamination is likely to affect most weak lensing results to date.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.61.2-61.2
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• 2016

Nuclear rings at centers of barred galaxies exhibit strong star formation activities. They are thought to undergo gravitational instability when sufficiently massive. We approximate them as rigidly-rotating isothermal objects and investigate their gravitational instability. Using a self-consistent eld method, we first construct their equilibrium sequences specified by two parameters: ${\alpha}$ corresponding to the thermal energy relative to gravitational potential energy, and $R_B$ measuring the ellipticity or ring thickness. The density distributions in the meridional plane are steeper for smaller ${\alpha}$, and well approximated by those of infinite cylinders for slender rings. We also calculate the dispersion relations of nonaxisymmetric modes in rigidly-rotating slender rings with angular frequency ${\Omega}$ and central density ${\rho}_c$. Rings with smaller are found more unstable with a larger unstable range of the azimuthal mode number. The instability is completely suppressed by rotation when ${\Omega}$ exceeds the critical value. The critical angular frequency is found to be almost constant at $0.7(G{\rho}_c)^{1/2}$ for ${\alpha}$ > 0.01 and increases rapidly for smaller ${\alpha}$. We apply our results to a sample of observed star-forming rings and confirm that rings without a noticeable azimuthal age gradient of young star clusters are indeed gravitationally unstable.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.111-118
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• 1996

We review observational evidence bearing on the formation of a prototypical large spiral galaxy, the Milky Way. New ground- and space-based studies of globular star clusters and dwarf spheroidal galaxies provide a wealth of information to constrain theories of galaxy formation. It appears likely that the Milky Way formed by an combination of rapid, dissipative collapse and mergers, but the relative contributions of these two mechanisms remain controversial. New evidence, however, indicates that initial star and star cluster formation occurred simultaneously over a volume that presently extends to twice the distance of the Magellanic Clouds.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.59-67
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• 2020

We propose semi-analytic models for the electron momentum distribution in weak shocks that accounts for both in situ acceleration and re-acceleration through diffusive shock acceleration (DSA). In the former case, a small fraction of incoming electrons is assumed to be reflected at the shock ramp and pre-accelerated to the so-called injection momentum, p_inj, above which particles can diffuse across the shock transition and participate in the DSA process. This leads to the DSA power-law distribution extending from the smallest momentum of reflected electrons, p_ref, all the way to the cutoff momentum, p_eq, constrained by radiative cooling. In the latter case, fossil electrons, specified by a power-law spectrum with a cutoff, are assumed to be re-accelerated from p_ref up to p_eq via DSA. We show that, in the in situ acceleration model, the amplitude of radio synchrotron emission depends strongly on the shock Mach number, whereas it varies rather weakly in the re-acceleration model. Considering the rather turbulent nature of shocks in the intracluster medium, such extreme dependence for the in situ acceleration might not be compatible with the relatively smooth surface brightness of observed radio relics.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.145-155
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• 2016

The Sausage radio relic is the arc-like radio structure in the cluster CIZA J2242.8+5301, whose observed properties can be best understood by synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons accelerated at a merger-driven shock. However, there remain a few puzzles that cannot be explained by the shock acceleration model with only in-situ injection. In particular, the Mach number inferred from the observed radio spectral index, M_radio ≈ 4.6, while the Mach number estimated from X-ray observations, M_X−ray ≈ 2.7. In an attempt to resolve such a discrepancy, here we consider the re-acceleration model in which a shock of M_s ≈ 3 sweeps through the intracluster gas with a pre-existing population of relativistic electrons. We find that observed brightness profiles at multi frequencies provide strong constraints on the spectral shape of pre-existing electrons. The models with a power-law momentum spectrum with the slope, s ≈ 4.1, and the cutoff Lorentz factor, γ_e,c ≈ 3−5×10⁴, can reproduce reasonably well the observed spatial profiles of radio fluxes and integrated radio spectrum of the Sausage relic. The possible origins of such relativistic electrons in the intracluster medium remain to be investigated further.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.55.2-55.2
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• 2010

We present a photometric and spectroscopic study of the globular clusters (GCs) in the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4636 in the Virgo cluster. The photometry of the GCs is based on HST/WFPC2 images for the inner region and deep, wide field Washington $CT_1$ CCD images for the outer region. We investigated the color distribution, the radial number density profile, the spatial distribution, and the mean color of the bright blue GCs about the GCs in NGC 4636. We obtained spectra of the GC candidates in NGC 4636 using the Multi-Object Spectroscopy (MOS) mode of Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph (FOCAS) on the SUBARU 8.2m Telescope. We measured the velocities for 105 GCs in NGC 4636. Using the 238 GCs obtained from combining our results with data in the literature, we investigated the kinematics of the GC system of NGC 4636: the rotation, the velocity dispersion, the radial variation, and the orbit. We also investigated the distribution and the radial variation of the metallicities, ages, and alpha-elements of the GCs in NGC 4636 derived using the absorption lines. We compared the GC kinematics of NGC 4636 with those of other six gEs, finding that the kinematic properties of the GCs are diverse among gEs. We found several correlations between the kinematics of the GCs and the global parameters of their host galaxies. Finally we discuss the implication of the results for the formation models of the GC system in gEs, and suggest a mixture scenario for the origin of the GCs in gEs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.34.1-34.1
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• 2018

Using cosmological N-body simulations we investigate statistical properties of flyby encounters between halos in comparison with mergers. We classify halo pairs into two groups based on the total energy (E12); flybys (E12 > 0) and mergers (E12 < 0). By measuring the flyby and merger fractions, we assess their dependencies on redshift (0 < z < 4), halo mass (10.8 < log Mhalo/Msun < 13.0), and large-scale environment (from field to cluster). We find that the flyby and merger fractions similarly increase with redshift until z = 1, and that the flyby fraction at higher redshift (1 < z < 4) slightly decreases in contrast to the continuously increasing merger fraction. While the merger fraction has little or no dependence on the mass and environment, the flyby fraction correlates negatively with mass and positively with environment. The flyby fraction exceeds the merger fraction in filaments and clusters; even 10 times greater in the densest environment. Our results suggest that the flyby makes a substantial contribution to the observed pair fraction, thus heavily influencing galactic evolution across the cosmic time.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.58.2-58.2
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• 2013

We present a photometric study of the globular clusters (GCs) in the giant elliptical galaxy M86 in the Virgo Cluster, using the Washington $CT_1$ images taken at the KPNO 4 m telescope. The color distribution of the GCs in M86 is bimodal. The radial number density profile of the blue GCs decreases more slowly as the galactocentric distance increases than that of the red GCs. The density profile of the red GCs is similar to the surface brightness profile of M86 stellar halo. The blue GCs have a roughly circular spatial distribution, while the red GCs have a spatial distribution somewhat elongated, which is consistent with the distribution of the galaxy stellar light. M86 GCs have the negative radial color gradient because the number ratio of the blue GCs to the red GCs increases as galactocentric radius increases. The mean color of the red GCs is similar to that of the stellar halo. The bright blue GCs in the outer region of M86 reveal a blue tilt that the mean colors of the blue GCs get redder as they get brighter. We discuss these results in comparison with other giant elliptical galaxies in the Virgo Cluster.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.135-142
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• 2011

A $200'{\times}200'$ region around 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is observed and analyzed in the near-infrared. We obtain polarimetry data in the J, H, and Ks bands using the SIRIUS polarimeter SIRPOL at the Infrared Survey Facility 1.4 m telescope. We measure the Stokes parameters of 2562 point-like sources to derive the degree of polarization and the polarization position angles. We discuss the statistics of the groups classified by color-magnitude diagram and proper motions of the sources, in order to separate the Galactic foreground sources from those present in the LMC. We notice that groups classified by the proper motion data show a tendency towards different polarimetric properties.